I recently posted an article about picking roots – in this case, Burdock Root – and the option of buying the same root from Japanese or Korean shops (where Burdock is known as Gobo) instead of going to the hassle of digging them up.
Truth be told, I enjoy the ease of buying Burdock, but I also really LIKE to dig them up!!
Here’s what I foraged for last autumn. That’s the best time to harvest, as the goodness gathers there in preparation for over-wintering.
I use Burdock as a grounding food and tincture, along with all it’s other supportive functions – cleansing the liver and therefore, the blood. Which keeps the skin clear and helps skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema.
Here’s a tricky fellow. We saw some folks out in their garden today, in their volkstuinhuis (garden lot/house) while we were looking around. They were busy tidying up and pruning some bushes. I was caught by the cedar-scent, and came over to investigate. The photo shows what we found. But I can’t seem to identify it – I thought it was a cedar, but looking it up, I can only think it must be some kind of cypress. If you have any ideas, please help me out. The photo shows both the front and back sides of the flat branches. It is too early for any cones, though had I been thinking, I’d have asked the owners to describe them. Anyway, I kept a bag of it to use – perhaps in tea, perhaps a smudge stick, maybe to flavour our rice tonight… we’ll see. It has a delicious, pungent scent that reminds me of the anti-bacterial properties held in cedars, pines, and cypresses.
I don’t know if you’re as crazy about arugula (rocket) as I am, but I know that it is one fine and tasty salad green. I have been sighting this garden-escapee all over Amsterdam for the past few years, and you can look for it as well – there is a good chance it is growing in a sunny, sandy location near you!
Simply be sure it is in an unpolluted place – and then only take a few leaves at a time. If you keep picking, it will keep providing… growing thickly until late summer, when the flowers and then seeds come out. The first thing you’ll probably notice when you sample it, is that the wild arugula has a far superior flavour than store-bought – and a spicier bite!
If you find some, but not in a clean place, no problem – gather up the seed pods and release them into a preferred location – it must be well-drained soil and sunny – and then enjoy them next year.
Today after dinner, we all sat around the table and chatted about our day while cracking the hazelnuts we had collected two years earlier, with my two daughters, now aged three and five.
We had gathered them in the park by Anne Frank’s original house in Amsterdam. There are two rows of tall, mature hazelnut trees along the walkways bordering the sidewalk, and we just scooped the nuts up. Leah was just a year old, so I guess my big helper was Anika, three years old at the time. She still remembers it. And so do I – it was my first urban hazelnut harvest.
This is probably the last week or two to spy the shy, but fairly common, Dog Violet, viola riviniana. This pretty little flower with the inspiring aroma and gentle, loving energy is full of vitamins – a welcome treat in the old days for families emerging from a winter living off dried and preserved foods. You may have seen sugared violets gracing fancy cakes and pastries – a few flower-heads in a dried tea mix, or atop a fresh, foraged salad, look simply beautiful. The leaves are also edible. I suggest, if you see this darling, to just have a nibble of a leaf, followed by the taste of one flower, allowing the scent and flavour to linger on your tongue… unless, of course, you’ve found a forest-edge or shady glen full of them, where if you pick just a few more it should be okay. Maybe a prayer or song for the Dog-Violet faery is in order in that case… 🙂
Always a good idea to give resident critters a chance to flee your harvest!
Wildcrafting – gathering plant material from it’s native “wild” environment – is becoming much more popular as an alternative source of food and medicine.
While in many ways nature-based herbal medicines and wild food foraging is ecologically sound – reducing carbon output, reducing chemical use, and, especially, reducing the immense drug-burden (from excreted pharmaceuticals) on soil and water-tables – there is still an impact, especially when there are simply more foragers at large, or if harvesting is done in a non-sensitive manner (trampling plants, pulling then up by the roots, over-harvesting, using endangered plants, simply – not being aware).
Responsible wildcrafting means to ethically harvest those plants which are most prolific and regenerative (dandelion, burdock, cleavers, for example) with the least amount of negative environmental impact.
Many wildcrafters have, or develop, a deep sense of kinship with the plants and surroundings, and make an effort for the protection and sustainability of natural areas. Equally important is an awareness of the ecological and personal relationship between individuals and our sacred Mother, Earth.
If I may, here are few suggestions:
Take the time you need to closely observe your surroundings over the course of days, months and years. That way you’ll know which plants are readily abundant, when they are in harvesting season, and which plants to protect. You’ll also form a respectful, friendly – even loving, relationship with the plants. Allow them to enter into your heart.
Be discreet. Others who witness you plucking plants may go ahead and do the same, but without your awareness and knowledge – especially children, who so love plants but also need some guidance on which are safe to eat, which flowers are abundant for picking, etc.
Know which plants are on the endangered list.
Harvest plants with a sense of respect and gratitude. Do so when in a calm emotional state, so you can stay aware.
Give back to nature in some way, and share your knowledge with other like-minded people. Try to join herbal walks with an experienced guide. Go out on your own, with not one, but two identification books, and look up one or two (or more) selected plants carefully. Touch the plants, smell them, talk to them, listen. If you know the plant is safe to eat, have a nibble. The greater the hands-on experience, the more you’ll remember.
A well-trained wildcrafter will avoid damage or depletion of our natural heritage, and she or he is integral in passing on the herbal knowledge of those who have come before them. If this is you, we need you, and our children need you.
I find it incredibly satisfying each day when I spot – and can correctly identify! – some of the many beautiful, edible or medicinal plants and flowers growing in totally urban places, such as in sidewalk cracks, as weeds in gardens, or along the canals. This walk will reveal those often-overlooked treasures, and offer more opportunities for practicing identification skills. I also find that being on the lookout for plants simply makes me feel more grounded, grateful and “in the moment.” If this sounds good to you, let me know!
“Suprabha Seshan is an ecosystems gardener at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary, a forest garden in the Western Ghat mountains of Kerala, India, dedicated to the preservation of plant species, restoration ecology and environmental education…”
I’ll be going to this inspirational talk about what one person can do – has done! – to help heal our Mother Earth.
If you ever feel like what you do on your own is insignificant or not enough – please click and find out more!
Wild in the City is an intensive series of four, full-day wildcrafting workshops with two aims: one, to help increase the number of, and care for, long-term food-producing plants in and around Amsterdam; and two, teaching the art of wild-crafting for food and medicine, with a special emphasis on ethical harvesting and supporting ecosystems. Here are some photos from Day 1 of Wild in the City!
Participants will learn to identify, use, and protect the many edible and medicinal plants – many of them considered to be ‘weeds’ — in the Amsterdam area. They’ll be part of a growing movement to respect food sources, and to expand them responsibly: nut trees, hedgerows, and grapevines, for example.
Wild in the City will be offered as full-day classes, on 4 Sundays, for a total of 24 hours: March 17, April 7 and 28, and June 23, 2013.
Some participants will maintain a blog site while in the program to share their experiences and challenges, as well as all the exciting wildcrafting information they’ll be learning, and how they’ll be utilizing it.
Groen en Doen, a project of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, has Wild in the City possible and have essentially funded 12 participants for the Program! All funded spaces are, but if you like what we are doing, and want to join us, please contact me. There are a few, non-funded spaces available at a fee of 125 euros per each 6-hour Sunday.
Yarrow and Red Cover for healing herbal infusions, teas and tinctures.
Wild Weed Wisdom 